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November 11, 2004

creative commons expands into science & patents

from c|net news.com:

Creative Commons, a nonprofit group that has proposed new ways to share creative works by use of a "some rights reserved" copyright system, is expanding from the realm of copyright into patents and scientific publishing by launching "Science Commons".  From their website and press release:

An intellectual-property system that allows sharing between scientists is particularly important, given research grants that often make results proprietary, as well as recent international changes in patent law that expand the scope of data protection, the group said. The "commons" approach could help introduce needed flexibility, it added.

"Right at the historical moment, when we have the technologies to permit worldwide availability and distributed processing of scientific data...we are busy locking up that data and slapping legal restrictions on transfer," the Creative Commons site says. "Judicious balance is needed. The tendency to claim that property rights are never the answer, or that openness always solves all problems, must be avoided."

My firm represents several university and academic institutions and we see the tension between the academic desire to freely share information versus the need and legal obligation of the university to properly protect and commercialize the developments made by the university's employees.  While the Creative Commons' approach is novel and worth discussing and exploring further, the universities' themselves will have to be the ones to "buy into" or adopt the approach - not individual academics or researchers.  The university is the "owner" of the discovery or invention (pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act) and therefore is the only entity with the legal right to dispose of the discovery assets in an alternative manner.

It will be interesting to see how AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers) responds.

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 10:44 AM.
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